"By 2015 or 2020, there will only be a few global educational institutions of higher learning. Others will become regional, specialty education institutions or relegated to oblivion."
Dr. James Woolliscroft, Dean, University of Michigan Medical School Remarks at School of Dentistry Convocation, August 2007
A compelling need exists among health care faculty and administrators to develop a new approach to educating students in dentistry, medicine, public health, nursing, and other health care professions. The approach must be integrated, encompassing all disciplines.
That was the message from the Dean of the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. James Woolliscroft, to administrators, faculty, staff, and students during the School of Dentistry's fourth annual convocation ceremony in August. The event celebrates the start of a new academic year.
In developing a new model of educating health care professionals, Woolliscroft emphasized the importance of being proactive.
"Society is demanding change," he said. "Those involved in health care must take the lead because if we don't, government will mandate change, and mandates may not be what any of us will be happy about."
Tracing the evolution of health care education and treatment, he said the Civil War was a major turning point that affected educators and the public.
"There was an incredible outcry then about deplorable medical conditions because of the way soldiers were treated for their wounds," he said. The outcry led to a handful of the nation's institutions of higher learning, including the University of Michigan, to pioneer what turned out to be major reforms in health care education and training in medicine, dentistry, and other professions.
"Those reforms were things that we as educators now take for granted, including educational prerequisites, clinical training, more classroom training, and research," he continued.
Because U-M and the other colleges and universities responded, they survived and thrived.
For those that didn't, the future was bleak.
"The colleges and universities that did not embrace change then, including many that were prominent at the time, are now historical asterisks because they didn't respond or they didn't have a vision," Woolliscroft said.
That lesson from the past is the lesson for today. However, today, medical and dental schools and other health care professionals must be in the vanguard.
A confluence of events, he said, is driving the need for an integrated approach to health care at colleges and universities.
They include changing demographics, globalization, higher levels of education, an explosion of knowledge fueled by advances in technology, and a growing need to provide health care that is affordable.